Alfredo Jaar

(Chile, 1956)

Process

Proposal

Related Material

Alfredo Jaar’s project for inSITE2000 was designed as an ephemeral monument to the memory of migrants who had died from 1990-2000 attempting to “illegally” cross the border between Mexico and the United States. Entitled “La nube”/”The Cloud”, the central component of the work was the release of one thousand white balloons. With the balloons tethered together in the shape of a cloud positioned immediately above the border fence at Valle del Matador/Goat Canyon, not far from Playas de Tijuana, the work took shape as a ceremony that included the performance of classical pieces by Albinoni, Bach, and Veracini, the reading of a poem by Tijuana poet Victor Hugo Limon, and a minute of silence. The balloons were then released and drifted away as symbols of the souls of the dead migrants.

Curators: Susan Buck-Morss, Ivo Mesquita, Osvaldo Sánchez, and Sally Yard
Venue: Valle del Matador/Goat Canyon, Playas de Tijuana